Former American hikers imprisoned in Iran support occupiers

Fresh from being sprung from an Iranian prison after spending several not so pleasant years in solitary confinement there, the three American so called hikers who supposedly wandered accidentally into Iran while touring Iraq, praised the useless idiots trespassing on private property and also support prisoners in California.

Oh, what not a surprise.

Three Americans freed after being held in Iran lent their support Monday to the now-global Occupy movement, applauding its participants' idealism and activism while making a specific point to protest what they call the harsh treatment of state prisoners in California.

The pleas in California from Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd to their hometown Occupy Oakland crowd supporting scores of prisoners on hunger strikes signify the wide breadth of issues -- and, critics may say, lack of focus -- being addressed by the movement. The trio, who said they experienced long-term solitary confinement in Iran -- called California's approach to such confinement especially egregious.

The state Department of Corrections said last week that a three-week hunger strike by inmates had ended. But Fattal -- who announced he'd gone on a symbolic 24-hour fast to show solidarity with the California inmates -- said Monday that 150 prisoners remained on a hunger strike.

"The only way to be heard is to threaten that you're going to die. This is crazy," said Bauer, who like Fattal spent 26 months mostly alone in cramped cells before being released last month. "If people here are supporting (the California prisoners), they are going to feel it."

(snip)

"Forever in my heart and my mind, those two (events, the release of Fattal and Bauer from Iran and the Occupy movement) will be linked," Shourd, who spent 14 months inside an Iranian prison, told the audience in front of Oakland's City Hall. "To have this incredibly powerful movement building at the same time was so healing, and it continues to be so healing."

Fattal said he had gone to the original home of Occupy Wall Street in New York soon after returning to the United States, describing the burgeoning movement as "totally inspiring."

What...there is no Occupy Teheran?! But...but what happened to the Teheran Spring of a few years ago?

Oh.

And silence from the three of them.

Fresh from being sprung from an Iranian prison after spending several not so pleasant years in solitary confinement there, the three American so called hikers who supposedly wandered accidentally into Iran while touring Iraq, praised the useless idiots trespassing on private property and also support prisoners in California.

Oh, what not a surprise.

Three Americans freed after being held in Iran lent their support Monday to the now-global Occupy movement, applauding its participants' idealism and activism while making a specific point to protest what they call the harsh treatment of state prisoners in California.

The pleas in California from Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd to their hometown Occupy Oakland crowd supporting scores of prisoners on hunger strikes signify the wide breadth of issues -- and, critics may say, lack of focus -- being addressed by the movement. The trio, who said they experienced long-term solitary confinement in Iran -- called California's approach to such confinement especially egregious.

The state Department of Corrections said last week that a three-week hunger strike by inmates had ended. But Fattal -- who announced he'd gone on a symbolic 24-hour fast to show solidarity with the California inmates -- said Monday that 150 prisoners remained on a hunger strike.

"The only way to be heard is to threaten that you're going to die. This is crazy," said Bauer, who like Fattal spent 26 months mostly alone in cramped cells before being released last month. "If people here are supporting (the California prisoners), they are going to feel it."

(snip)

"Forever in my heart and my mind, those two (events, the release of Fattal and Bauer from Iran and the Occupy movement) will be linked," Shourd, who spent 14 months inside an Iranian prison, told the audience in front of Oakland's City Hall. "To have this incredibly powerful movement building at the same time was so healing, and it continues to be so healing."

Fattal said he had gone to the original home of Occupy Wall Street in New York soon after returning to the United States, describing the burgeoning movement as "totally inspiring."